Joseph Magnus Cigar Blend Bourbon

Amazingly sweet with a nice smokey finish. I would describe this as a perfect marriage between bourbon and scotch.

Batch 42. Heavy alcohol on the nose. Let it sit for a while and it softens. This is an example of a finished whisky that is well done. It’s not too strong on the Armagnac. Brown sugar, honey, oak and tobacco. As the name suggests, this would be fantastic paired with a cigar.

Batch 42 - The first rule of cigar blend - you don't talk about what you did to the store clerk to get it! OK jokes aside this wasn't an easy find. This is a neck pour review so please….don’t come at me if my notes are limited here. I’ll try and get a review of this on the channel with mike and I next time we get together. Nose - The nose is safe to say, pleasant. At 61.88 the alcohol has a presence but it's still letting the whisky creep out and say hi. A combination of light tobacco, sweet figs and perhaps raisins. Deeper in I'm getting honey with brown sugar (really heavy brown sugar going on), and chocolates along with light oak elements. This batch 42 marries together a touch of oak smoke, sweet bourbons, along with a healthy dose of those "fall" notes we've become so used to with these Cigar Blends (I need to remember where they're sourcing the barrels and get a bottle, I'm armagnac collection is limited but it's slowly growing thanks to "The Nose" and these releases. Sweet forward with brown sugar and some fruits and I dunno, it’s got a vegetal (not green!) savory thing going on too. Taste - The flavor on this one takes a bit of a turn from the nose. The alcohol here has no filter, it's big, spicy, bold, and a bit hot. You get what I'm reference as a very nice and very beam like arrival where you get big oak and what I'll also call "beam leather". Think old sun dried and almost falling apart leather vs a nice new soft as a baby's bottom leather that you might get more with a buffalo trace product. The second taste now acclimated to that fire and the sweet fruity notes of the armagnac and now some what I assume is MGP rye spice is coming into play. Now I'm getting more and more leather (I guess I left that out of my nosing marks) and getting I dunno, I'm bad with butter scotch and toffee when combined with other things but I think toffee. I also almost get a grape like note...I know maybe just armagnac but it's a bit more vibrant than I expect in this combination and I love it. Water impacts - so the first thing is just the nose really gets more rye forward bourbon, I"m not sure the mash bill on the bourbons used but that's what I'm detecting here. Mostly no real change however. On the taste my question about butter scotch and toffee is over, it's big old toffee dessert. That's now the dominate opening sweetness for me. Questionable notes – A new one but with this abv and body I had to. I can’t tell if I’m getting some citrus elements or if it’s alcohol. If it’s citrus this is one of the more tame alcohol forward cigar blends in terms of the nose, if not then I like the alcohol element here. Either way a plus. Overall, the long linger smoky and spicy finish is just awesome. My mouth feels just blow and away by now almost an oz of whisky. I'll be going back for a few more pours of this tonight. This isn't a bourbon to share with your friends getting into bourbon. This is for those who really like big bold and complex flavors who can spend hours with a glass. Oh goodness, I’m thinking some orange notes are in here too. Where did that come from? Anyway looking forward to researching this one. I know Nancy has notes on each batch. Hoping she gives me her take on butter scotch vs toffee and hoping she clarifies that citrus vs alcohol. And I certainly hope she got her some brown sugar on the nose, cause that’s lovely. Scoring - so back even just the couple of years ago I started doing this, I was a versed whisky drinker but I'd not had nearly as much as I have had now. Then these bottles were these mind blowing and life altering moments of wow. Today, I'm picking apart the elements of the bourbon and the play on the oak...it's all become a bit "simple" in way that's more and more making me look for dusty bottles of scotch (not even just high end scotch). I say this not to take away from this bottle but to set the stage for my score. This is a 4.25.

This is the one that will knockout even people who complain about finished whiskeys. I don’t love every Magnus I’ve tasted. But the Cigar Blend will make a cynic come to Jesus. I’m just sad I didn’t make my bottle last longer—always on the hunt to replace it.